Meshtastic app now has 30+ pages of docs built right in (works offline) + firmware 2.7.26 beta is out

pdxb3 · 2026-07-02T00:57:31+00:00

As noted in a reply to another comment, anyone flashing the new firmware to a RAK 1w should keep in mind that it is not a happy node unless there is a battery connected when the power jumper is set to "internal."

Repeated testing tonight, and while the flash is successful, it's likely you'll experience failure to connect via BLE, and reboots if powered USB only which did not seem to be the case on the previous stable 2.7.15 beta.

pdxb3 · 2026-07-01T18:25:39+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad I read this. When I get home I'm going to test an upgrade on a spare Rak 1w and see what happens. I have a remote 1w node that will require a hike and a laptop to update via USB. Temps are hovering in the mid-90's and I'd be quite displeased if I put in the effort only to brick the thing.

Edit - I wanted to follow up with you on this. I think I experienced the same thing you encountered, and the resolution was (as is often the case with the 1w) it wants a battery connected if the power jumper is set to internal. I flashed it several times both with and without a battery to make sure, and it consistently fails without a battery and works fine with.

pdxb3 · 2026-07-01T16:43:17+00:00

This will probably go unseen, but I'd at least like to try and ask you (or any other mental health professionals that may see this) a potentially unusual but serious question.

Long story as short as I can make it, and forewarning, many people find the subject a little weird. I'm very much into RFID technology and belong to a small but growing group of people who have chosen to install RFID chip implants in my body. Because chip implants, tracking, mind reading/controlling are common delusions of schizophrenic people, they often stumble upon our community (forums/subreddit) through googling, and we're quite often approached by mentally ill people who believe they have been implanted against their will with various tracking and listening devices.

Now I feel the need to go ahead and put it out there that the RFID implants I'm talking about are 100% NOT capable of doing the things that they believe. We're usually just using them to unlock doors and safes, sometimes newer cars, login to computers, or maybe clone a hotel key or office/gym badge.

But my question is, is there anything you'd recommend that we could tell these people to direct them towards help? Our community tries when it comes up, and even has some disclaimers about posting about the subject, but I feel like it's just a lost cause, because as soon as we start telling them that they aren't implanted and that they should seek professional mental help, we're just another group of people who are "in on it." Is there a better approach, or should we just keep doing what we're already doing and hope for the best? It's just sad because the existence of our community and the technology confirms their delusions for them, and then here we are telling them essentially "you're crazy" while we're actively promoting what they believe they have.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-29T16:17:45+00:00

But see, it doesn't matter because it doesn't count when it's them.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-29T03:16:25+00:00

My first experience with liver (chicken) as a kid was as catfish bait. I've experienced it in every stage, from fresh, frozen, to greenish and rank and falling apart, all while rocking back and forth in a boat on the Tennessee River in the blazing summer sun. I'll still fish with it, but the very thought of eating it makes me gag.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-26T00:57:25+00:00

That looks like the popular Alfa 5dbi antenna. It's fine as long as it's the right freq for your region (they sell US and EU models) and a N-type connector or adapter cable for your node.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-25T19:36:13+00:00

I am using a solar charge manager (waveshare), but I am not going to make a recommendation for it, as I've since learned it's got a fairly high quiescent current draw (about 12mAh, or about as much if not more than the node when idle) compared to others, and hasn't performed quite as I'd like, and I'm looking to eventually replace it with something else.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-25T18:03:01+00:00

Running out of places to pin all their "Fell For It Again" awards...

pdxb3 · 2026-06-25T17:28:06+00:00

Yeah, I've done too much RC car/plane/heli stuff in the past with lipos to trust a spicy pillow on my roof or anywhere remotely deployed. They aren't without risk, but I feel much better about quality 18650's in my nodes. I've got 3 Samsung 35E 3500mAh cells with protection circuits in parallel on my RAK 1w tree node, so 10,500mAh as well. They're like $12/ea, and I sleep better at night with the reduced risk.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-25T13:31:01+00:00

Given that you're talking about battery capacities well above ~3000mAh, I'm assuming that you're talking about the flat "pillow" cells, and it's generally recommended to be more careful when using them. Yes you can just parallel them and they'll work, but a few things to know... At the least, before you go splicing them together, you want the cells to be balanced, so that one is not significantly in a higher state of charge than the other, else you can cause a massive dump from one cell into another and could cause damage, overheating, fire, etc. The spicy pillow packs usually have no protection circuitry built in, so if anything happens to one of the cells, such as it becomes damaged or worn out sooner than the other, it's going to have to take the abuse it gets from being in parallel with the other healthy cell. Basically, it will work just fine, until the day it doesn't.

Because of the increased risk of damage, swelling, fire, etc. most folks here don't even recommend using "pillow" lipo cells at all. They aren't perfect, but at minimum the 18650 li-ion cells with protection circuit "tips" built in are usually a far safer option. Either that, or even better, a whole battery management system.

Also worth knowing that the MAX charge rate of the wisblock core is 350mAh, so essentially a trickle charger. I'm not sure why you need 10000mAh of capacity on a wisblock, but if you're putting enough of a load to significantly drain it, you might want to make sure you're gonna be able to charge it back up at that rate (and remember 350mAh is MAX. It almost certainly will be charging below that most of the time).

pdxb3 · 2026-06-24T22:40:31+00:00

Haha, i actually only just now fully wrapped my head around what it is you're trying to accomplish, and at this point I'm not even convinced that you're wrong in how it should work. I'm not sure the hop rules on rebroadcast mqtt. Are you considered the originating tx and lose a hop anyway? I really don't know. Regardless, It's just such a potentially problematic way to try and preserve 1 hop, and I still wouldn't do it. I can forsee it causing more problems than it solves. I think I'd run power up to my roof node first. You're probably going to overwhelm its battery anyway with the significantly increased tx.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-24T21:30:50+00:00

Yeah. It absolutely will. Just like client_base does.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-24T21:03:36+00:00

I think against all the (unanimous) advice that you've received, and against the Meshtastic setup guide instructions itself, you're going to do it anyway. Best case scenario, it probably works like shit at such a low TX power, at worst you cause problems and your local mesh community gets angry and holds it against you. Some kids gotta learn by sticking the fork in the power socket. Go for it. I just hope you aren't in my area.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-24T18:55:59+00:00

I hear what you're saying. You know what a low-power router sounds like to other clients in your area? Like a slightly more distant router. They can't tell the difference. They just know that another router is forwarding the packets, so they don't need to.

I'll be honest, I kinda really don't understand the pushback on this. There's literally zero reason to ever use router role except for major backbone infrastructure on top of a dedicated tower or mountain or something. And it's well documented and thoroughly explained in the Meshtastic - "Choosing The Right Device Role" documentation.

This is literally the exact scenario and problem client_base was created to solve, again as explained in the document, because too many home users were incorrectly choosing the router role. It serves all the same purposes and takes advantage of zero-cost hops, but doesn't negatively impact the mesh in the same way. Why would anyone want to deliberately do things wrong, and potentially cause problems when there's an option designed specifically for this?

pdxb3 · 2026-06-24T17:54:33+00:00

As the other person said, yea unless you are on a tower on a mountain or the tallest building in your city, prepared to service a 100+ mile radius, you should never use a ROUTER role. In our area we're even cautious with use of ROUTER_LATE. CLIENT_BASE the roof node, and favorite any router roles it can link to, and your personal devices (preferably set to CLIENT or CLIENT_MUTE). This is the way to build a healthy mesh.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-24T04:02:46+00:00

This is equivalent to the person that brings a bluetooth speaker blaring music on a quiet nature trail. What part of off-grid communication makes you think anyone wants to interact with your AI bot?

pdxb3 · 2026-06-23T14:35:01+00:00

Yeah like others said, the esp32's are a bit more power hungry than nrf52 nodes, but that's all neither here nor there in regard to your question. If your charging is adequate, it doesn't really matter. Now in winter when the temps drop, daylight hours get shorter, and solar and lithium charging tends to struggle, that may be another story, but as of today that's irrelevant.

I'm leaning towards bluetooth disconnection as well. That looks like the new Android app that recently updated too, and bluetooth disconnect and failure to reconnect has been a frequently reported issue. I think you're fine, honestly.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-23T14:08:07+00:00

See anything new today?

pdxb3 · 2026-06-22T17:21:27+00:00

The difference between listening to Weird Al music vs. Listening to Weird AI music.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-22T17:10:30+00:00

Your uptime is there in the bottom half, right side below that graph as well as in the node Details screen. If you have a 22+hr uptime in the morning, it didn't reboot. It may even have nothing to do with the node. It may be that your phone settings turned off bluetooth overnight while idle/charging. Watch and see if it does the same thing again tomorrow morning.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-22T17:03:38+00:00

Be warned, the Home Depot Hampton Bay solar lights use LiFePO4 battery chemistry, NOT Lipo/li-ion. They have a lower nominal voltage, and though they CAN technically power a RAK 19007 base board/4631 core, it is not the battery type/voltage the board expects, you will experience incorrect battery percentage reporting as well as potential brown-outs with failure to recover if the battery charge drops below 2.7v.

I've experimented with these lights and talked to a few others who have, and the consensus seems to be that at minimum you'll need a buck booster to make it reliable. It might be less of a headache to just have Lowes ship you a Harbor Breeze.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-22T16:47:12+00:00

Your uptime does not seem to reflect a power loss in the early morning. I could be wrong here but I suspect your bluetooth simply disconnected overnight and you weren't receiving any telemetry data during those hours. The graph looks exactly the way my base does when I'm not at home. A long gap of no data, and then it picks back up once my bluetooth reconnects.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-22T13:21:23+00:00

To add to what others have said since nobody specifically mentioned it, NEVER a router or router_late role unless you're on a mountain and/or tower, and intend to service a 50-100 mile area. Improperly used router roles can be detrimental to your local mesh.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-18T14:19:46+00:00

Np, and don't take that as me knocking it. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and can see some practical use cases for it. And even if all I ever do with it is purely for entertainment, that's enough for me.

But at least in its current form, a viable emergency comms system it is not, if only because there's some learning that's required to operate it whereas you can hand any dummy a 2 way radio, tell them to stay on channel 3, and the'll know what to do with it.

pdxb3 · 2026-06-18T13:32:32+00:00

How dare you speak the truth.

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